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Frequently asked questions/General
General What is Duolingo and how does it work? : Duolingo is a crowdsourced translation and educational service. It works by helping students learn a language and simultaneously translate content (e.g. commercial documents) that helps keep it free . More information about how the service works can be found at Duolingo's official information page, a blog discussing duolingo as a game, and in a video"Duolingo Introduction", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OebgtUjLg4. Who created Duolingo? : Duolingo was created by Luis von Ahn, Severin Hacker and The Duolingo Teamhttps://www.duolingo.com/info. How often do new Duolingo updates to the service come out? : As of 2014-09-03, they "are trying to get new updates out every 3 weeks or so and have been keeping pretty well to that, features are added and removed in each update but if they are measuring correctly, the ones that stick should be the ones that have great effects, and will get them to impact people's lives like no education service has before"https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4396066$comment_id=4403417. Why doesn't Duolingo have more features? : "There would be a menu with hundreds of options to chose from, making Duolingo quite confusing"Recognition vs Recall, https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1148875$comment_id=1152000. See the paradox of choice . What are moderators? : Course moderators are volunteers that create courses. Forum moderators are volunteers who are " considered leaders in the community and many are in touch with the team" , they also ensure that users obey Duolingo's guidelines. Where can I get help? : There are various places to get help : * To report spam or abuse, contact the Duolingo support staff by emailing support@duolingo.com or by clicking on the "Support" tab on the left edge of the Duolingo website. * For troubleshooting technical issues with Duolingo, you can either use the above email address or support tab or post in the "Troubleshooting" section in the "Discussion" area. * For language-related questions you can post in a sentence-specific discussion area (using the "Discuss sentence" button appearing after you've submitted your answer) or in the appropriate language-specific forum. * For general questions about Duolingo, please search for an answer on this wiki (using the search box near the upper right corner of the page) as well as in the main Duolingo discussion area (using the search box to the left of the "New Discussion" button) and the additional resources linked here. (For best results, try to narrow down your query to one or two key words and search for that.) If you cannot find an answer to your question in any of those places then you can ask about it in the main Duolingo discussion area or by contacting Duolingo support via the above-mentioned methods. Settings Where are my settings? *Hover mouse over username where it appears in blue bar at top of screen. Drop down menu with "Settings" appears. OR *Use this direct URL to your settings (must be signed in to Duolingo) Settings Menu Includes: #Account #Learning Language #Profile #Password #Notifications #Coach 'Profile Picture' To add or change your profile picture, go to Settings > Account > Upload > Save Troubleshoot 'How do I deactivate my account?' #Go to Settings > Account > "Deactivate my account" > Save Other Users What are followers and friends? : Followers are users who are interested in seeing a user's updates, posts, or progress through the tree. Friends are people a user follows. How can I block another user? : You can block another user from posting in your Activity stream. Follow these steps: # Go to that user's profile. # To the right of their profile icon, you will see a grey gear (blue in picture). # Hover over over it and select the "Block" option that appears. * To unblock that user in the future, just hover over their gear again and select "Unblock". How do I format comments? : See Formatting. [[Frequently asked questions/General#I have feature X but my friend''' doesn't (or vice versa). Why?|I have feature X but my friend doesn't (or vice versa). Why?]] : Duolingo is constantly trying to improve itself. One of the ways it does this is by testing experimental features on a subset of its users before rolling them out to everyone . This way it can tell whether a feature is actually an improvement or not before it commits to it. That's why you will sometimes have a feature that your friends don't have or vice versa. I had feature X but don't anymore, why? : Duolingo tests and removes features that are not useful or fail their tests.Some features may be removed temporarily while they are being improvedhttps://www.duolingo.com/comment/1725038. What are streaks? : : '''Streak is a measure of how consistently one uses Duolingo . Streaks are measured in days. Using Duolingo everyday will cause the counter to increase by one each day. Where do most Duolingo users come from? : As of 2013-09-24, most users came from USA followed by Brazil, and Mexicohttps://www.duolingo.com/comment/862650. I love Duolingo. How can I help the site? *Tell people about it. The more people who use and contribute to Duolingo, the better it can become. *Once you start getting the knack of the language you're learning, try translating some real-world content in the Immersion section at https://www.duolingo.com/translations. Documents that are marked as "Sponsored" help Duolingo pay the bills, and even unsponsored documents help Duolingo to refine its algorithms for finding the best translations. *Help other learners who are learning languages you know by interacting with them in the language discussion areas. *If you or someone you know is fluent in two (or more!) languages, you can help Duolingo make new language courses or improve existing ones. Apply at http://incubator.duolingo.com/apply. *If you see an error in one of Duolingo's language exercises, report it using these instructions. Reporting errors helps Duolingo make its courses even better. Can I donate money to Duolingo? : Duolingo does not currently accept donations. It earns money from its users translating real-world content in the Immersion section. Can I buy a Duolingo shirt or stickers or something? :Yes, Duolingo has a gear store with items for purchase. Note that all items are priced at cost, so Duolingo makes no money off them, but they can be a nice way of showing your Duolingo Pride and spreading the word about the site. Is there an API or third-party userscripts for Duolingo? : No, as of 2014-09, there is no API, but there are userscripts written by some users. See Duolingo Userscripts. Is there an easier way to type accented and special characters than using the clickable buttons? : You can install a keyboard layout that supports typing accented and special characters even on a keyboard that isn't marked for them. For instructions on how to do that, see the Guide to Installing Keyboard Layouts. For information on some of the layout options available to install, see the Guide to keyboard layouts and input methods. : Windows users can also use Alt codes, Mac OS users can use key combinations accessible from their default keyboard layout, and Linux users can use a compose key. How can I type accented and special characters on my cell phone? : On an Android device, tapping and holding on a letter key will bring up the option of adding an accent to it. Tapping and holding on the "s" key will bring up the option to type "ß". You may need to install a keyboard from the Google Play store with multi-character features. When are typos accepted? : They "accept something as a typo if it is one letter off AND is not a valid word. So for example, they accept "te" as a typo for "the" but don't ... accept "he" as one" . This FAQ doesn't answer my question. Where else can I find answers? *Search this wiki: type=search2 buttonlabel=Search *Official Duolingo information pages *Official Duolingo Help Page *Immersion navigation guide *Another user-created FAQ *Guide to Duolingo guides *Duolingo discussion area References Category:Faq